Is India a Slumdog ?

The recent controversy or should i say debate over the portrayal of Mumbai in the really popular Slumdog Millionaire is absolutely necessary in my opinion.

There are two reasons why Indians could dislike the film:

1) The more straightforward reason - because it is an insult to India & its people.
2) The way it was received among the western audiences-they called it path breaking & original.

I am an Indian who dislikes the film because of the latter reason. Even in Indian films, the spirit of the poor people is glorified & romanticized, so that can hardly be cited as a reason to dislike the movie.

No..
What bothers me as an Indian is the way it was received in the West. The Western audiences called the film "path-breaking ". Haven't we seen enough of Laawaris, Deewar & Nayagan to actually use a different term "cliche" to describe the film ?

What bothers me as an Indian is that if slumdog deserved 11 Oscar nominations(and i expect at least 5 awards), didn't Lagaan or Mother India or Salaam Mumbai deserve at least 1 award ?

What bothers me as an Indian is that if A.R.Rahman deserved 3 nominations in the Oscar for Slumdog, didn't he deserve an award for those hundreds of masterpieces he has made till date ?

What bothers me as an Indian is that if the westerners like a story of determination & winning against all odds, wasn't Lagaan a much better film than Slumdog ?

I understand that I have more questions than someone can answer.But if I don't get those answers, Ill be just one more of those million Indian teenagers who'll have a troubled sleep thinking that its much bigger a challenge to look developed than to be developed !

My new born grudge against TV news.......

My impression on most TV News channels fell sharply after their coverage of the Mumbai attacks.Still I put that on occasionally and still followed it for most of my news on day to day news......
It happened again,a month later, the mangalore incident....cameramen stood ready to take the shot as the women were being thrown out.....A man with a camera running behind a man being bashed up was a pretty shameful sight.......
Still my impression with those TV channels was not killed, still alive as a horcrux........ Until yesterday.........

All TV News channels were quick to bring to our notice the policemen in UP beating up the 6 year old girl (I actually cried after seeing the video).......first impulse was to kill the policemen(I dont think people are convicted for murder in India !!)........
But once that impulse gave way to clarity, i saw the video again( U C ,our news channels have that unfortunately irritating habit of looping their images.)

So when i saw that video again, something made me sit up with surprise....One of the policemen was actually staring at the camera !!!!! Now if the policeman was aware that he was being shot in the camera, would he have still continued with that torture? (Im sure he knew of the repurcursions).....And it isnt exactly easy to hide the camera is it ??

Put them together and u end up with something you dont want to believe.......I mean ,
did the policemen want to show India that they were torturing that poor girl ???
Or did the media houses ,thirsty of some great news organise this ????

A Union Minister,Antulay, once said this & recieved a lot of flak........
But "There is more than what meets your eye".....

Politics & are we fed up yet?

The Mumbai Terror attack proved one thing very clearly.........India's politicians can never ever come together !
And no number of deaths can make them think as normal human beings........


Three pieces of politics which shocked all Indians :-

1) Raj Thackerey's statement on the third day of the encounter, that, he was right after all.It was because of overcrowdng of people from other states which caused the scale of damage as it did.


2) R.R.Patil's (Deputy CM of Maharashtra) & I quote:
"Small incidents like this keep happening in many Indian cities.This does not mean we resign".


3) L.K.Advani & the PM dont come to Mumbai together cancelling their earlier plans. Later,Advani boycotts the All-Party meet sending Jaswant Singh instead !



If you feel there was nothing wrong in these statements & actions,congrats ,because you are most likely to become India's PM!


We now know where the priority of the Politicians lie.......
And we know where our priority lies.We have to do what needs to be done.No other expectations from anyone else.

And quoting a distant better politician:
"YES WE CAN"!!!!!



Jai Hind !!!

An Indian Youth's Responsibility!!

We are no more children.. unless we take responsibility in our own hands, India is going nowhere. Politicians with no qualifications whatsoever rule us and time and again, under perform. i am not going to start blaming them. That is not the solution as I see it...

We need a whole change... We need someone with charisma, one who can change the Indian mentality and the laws of Indian politics. We need youth with intelligence in the system.. someone who knows what they are doing... India 2020 cannot be achieved without the involvement of our country's greatest resource- the youth.

India has achieved a whole lot in the past. But we cannot stand on the past alone.. We need to adapt, something we have been resisting. The times have changed. Today, took place, in Mumbai, one of the largest terrorist attacks in the world, and the worst one India has seen ever.

The youth need to infiltrate politics and governance. There is no other solution. Our armed forces are some of the best in the world, yet this has happened. We still follow outdated laws and vote-bank politics.

While the terrorists grow in power and intelligence and resources, we have not been growing so. In here, everything works the same old way, and we need to go through several levels of administration and bureaucracy to get things done.

When will we ever learn? When will we ever change?

I call upon everyone with the determination and will to take a minimum of an active interest in politics. If not join it, be a watchdog. Claim your rights, and what is yours. WE do not have to live administered by corrupt goondas. With the support of educated youth, then and ONLY then will there be a hope for the future, leave alone development...

Anirudh R


P.S: It was indeed heartening to see parties staying away from blaming each other at least during today's disaster..

I feel it is credible of advani and manmohan to travel together to mumbai.. Let there be more signs of such wisdom. India is learning. It will be a better place no doubt.


About Anirudh R:
Anirudh R Was one of the first members of the Dawned Indian Youth Army.He is a person who like me feels the educated politicians are the only ones who deserve to be ruling the nation & agrees that as long as the educated youth run away from politics there can be no end to Corruption!

For more posts on the Indian Picture visit :
http://radicalfundamentalism.blogspot.com/

I started this thing called Dawned Indian Youth Army 1 year back, & never before has the future of DIYA been more clear . Thanks to a few of like minded friends,what was once a virtually inactive community on Orkut is growing,both on Orkut & outside it.

"Operation Sanskruti" was launched last week after a few DIYA members met on the internet on a Yahoo conference. This activity aims at giving Vedic practices the same importance they had during Vedic times.What is a better wayto do this than to prove how significant Vedas are in terms of their scientific content !

Many scientists have acknowledged the Vedic Sciences as being resonant with modern findings.
Though Indians underestimate the Vedas, westerners place them at the right place as the first fundamental work on the Principles of Nature.
So we are going to start cracking ancient laws & examine their purpose because a purpose surely existed ! We are going to examine why certain vedic rules became just superstitions 1000 years after they were set !


Help us how you can , Nothing can help us more than the support of Indian Youth !!!

Gandhigiri Returns ?

Another bomb blast........Losing count of them !
It has now been proved that we are never going to stop this....Bomb blast is going to become a natural cause of death in a few more years,another lifestyle disease !

Dont you think its Better to look out fer a cure from now itself ? Isnt it late enough ?

Are we really losing significance of satyagraha in such times ? They talk of " settling scores " !! Doesnt this sound like GTA ? Killin your opponents ?

There is a very big Mental & Social Malaise in India ,Issues fer which we are just not responsible....Issues fer wich only god can be held responsible ...for Instance,Is it our mistake that Timur,Moghuls & Lodis chose to conquer India ? Why are we being killed ? What was the mistake we committed ?

In such times,I wondered what the father of our nation would've done ! How can someone still think of peace ? So many deaths ....bloodshed ....What could he have done ?
The need of the hour is Gandhi - He is the only person who can help us !!

Oh God,are U still testing us ? If you want to help us ,send back Gandhi !!!

How do you think we can tackle terrorism?

For terrorism to be tackled,
people need to be more brave against it,

For people to be bolder,
Security needs to be Increased,

For security to be increased ,
corruption needs to be controlled
(You know ,a mumbai policeman was bribed to allow explosives to be brought into the city before the 2006 train blasts!!!)

For corruption to be controlled
Laws must be stricter.

for laws to be stricter ,
People need to take an initiative.


Therefore,We and we alone are responsible for the destruction of our country.

Any solutions?